Recurring Images - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 54

A recent dance production, designed by the Brothers Quay, came closest to the spirit.
The performers were clearly Edwardian gentlemen, but their dance and costume provided
the animal characteristics that make-up would have made redundant. The set suggested a
distorted nursery, with an old wardrobe quickly becoming the caravan, and then spilling out
metres of blue silk for Ratty's river. Tea chests became the tunnel under Toad Hall. Cars and
boats were represented by large tin toys worn by the characters, echoing perfectly Toad's
state of mind. As Mole and Ratty sat having their picnic, other members of the cast hovered
with their i sts tight shut in long black gloves. Opening their hands revealed a dazzling l ash
of colour suggesting a butterl y or a dragonl y. All so inventive and more satisfying than a
straightforward approach, and in keeping with Grahame's imaginative storytelling.
Peter Pan has yet to l y in stop motion. The practicalities make drawing Peter l ying much
easier. Although I i nd the Pirates and Indians tedious, the relationship between Peter and
Wendy never fails to move me, but it is the relationship between Peter and his shadow that
intrigues me. This echoes the relationship between the creator and the puppet, both wanting
independence but actually dependent on each other. I have seen the shadow successfully
performed with a silk cut out, and by a dancer in black, and by puppets.
I have yet to see a ballet involve any puppetry, although probably the exercise is generally
pointless, as the success of dance lies in pushing the body into doing things we thought were
impossible. To disguise the body or distract with puppets defeats the object. We need to see the
body clearly to appreciate the extremes of movement and the transformations. The tradition
of dressing male ballet dancers in tight period jackets, but with acres of thigh and much more
showing can look ridiculous in harsh daylight, but it's not about costumes, but the legs. There
is little point in hiding such tools of storytelling. Tutus may look slightly absurd, but they do
not get in the way of the body's lines. Choreographers such as Busby Berkeley and Flo Ziegfeld
used their performers not so much as dancers but as moving puppets, transforming the body
into huge pianos, harps and other objects, or just massed ranks of l esh. So often, as in Disney's
Beauty and the Beast musical, humans are turned into objects, and objects into humans.
A script arrived for me from Hollywood in which a strolling puppeteer in eighteenth century
France ( Dangerous Liaisons was big at the time) was able to pass on the truth about the corrupt
courts he performed in, stirring the lower classes into action, while the courts were none the
wiser. It was never made, but it had everything: a good plot, great costumes, heaving breasts,
lashings of decadence … and puppets! A glorious combination, but above all, it took puppets
seriously and acknowledged their power for conveying the unspeakable. This so excites me.
Confusingly, the idea was to perform the marionette puppets as stop motion.
Spitting Image
A retrospective of Spitting Image , the hugely popular UK topical puppet show, suggested when
the politicians were satirised on the show the public were considerably more aware of the
actual politics.
Spitting Image was an extraordinary show that managed to make politics sexy and
cool, but most importantly, here was the ultimate version of puppets getting away
with saying the unspoken. The immediacy of the show was impressive, with the
most topical elements being recorded during the afternoon of transmission, which
gave it rawness. Even with these extremes of caricature, there were boundaries